SteelAsia inks deal with Italian firm for Quezon steel mill

MANILA, Philippines — SteelAsia Manufacturing Corp. has tapped Italian firm Danieli Co. Ltd. to supply the equipment for the country’s first heavy steel sections mill in Candelaria, Quezon.

In a statement, the country’s flagship steel company said that it has signed an agreement with Danieli to provide all core equipment and technology for the P30-billion project.

With Danieli’s green steel technologies, the Candelaria mill is expected to have one of the lowest carbon footprints in the world for steel plants.

In particular, it is expected to avoid two million tons of carbon dioxide per year.

The Candelaria mill is set to be the first facility in the country for the production of heavy beams, angles and channels, sheet piles, as well as narrow plates, which are currently being imported mostly from China and Vietnam.

Given its tensile strength advantages over reinforced concrete, SteelAsia said sections are considered the most suitable for countries prone to typhoons and earthquakes like the Philippines.

“Steel is the base development of any country,” Danieli CEO Giacomo Mareschi Danieli said.

“This is laying the foundation of future development in the Philippines and this is what we are seeing everywhere in the world,” he said.

The Candeleria steel mill is set to become SteelAsia’s sixth operating steel mill in the country. The company operates steel mills in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

It is expected to benefit the country’s construction sector, both in terms of cost and time savings, once it starts operations in 2027.

Delivery lead times for steel for infrastructure projects will be reduced to just two weeks from three months.

There will also be benefits in terms of employment with the Candelaria mill, along with SteelAsia’s section mill under construction in Batangas, expected to generate 7,000 jobs.